letting my marriage thrive after infidelity

Tag Archives: punishment

My husband pointed out that he felt my post about boundaries felt a little extreme. He made some very valid points so I wanted to clarify and expand on a couple of things.

First and foremost – a list of boundaries is not intended to be punishment for your partner/spouse. It is a list of behaviors that you will not tolerate. If we don’t define what we think is acceptable behavior it’s pretty shocking the things we will end up accepting. But if we utilize boundaries to create fences around our relationships, it helps us to stay on track. Once we know where the fence line is we know that we need to stop and reconsider our direction when we get to close to the edge.

Once we clearly state the boundaries in our relationship then there can be no excuses or misunderstandings. You see, if I never say that I’m not comfortable with my husband going to a strip club – and then he goes one day because it’s convenient and those things happen – he could just say “It was nothing – I didn’t know it would bother you” and I wouldn’t have any legitimate repercussion. Our partners can’t read our minds so we need to be very specific. There can be no grey area when it comes to setting boundaries, especially around sexual activities or other addictions.

It’s not intended to be an unreasonable list which turns your mate into a married version of a monk. The list needs to be reasonable and is best created with an empathetic heart . It’s essentially a more detailed extension of a wedding vow. If he was willing to commit in front of God and family that he would be faithful and loyal on your wedding day – then expanding on what exactly that means to you shouldn’t be an issue. Your boundaries could include details about money, your children, how you communicate – anything that you feel is necessary to make yourself feel safe. It took me weeks to finalize my list – to make sure that it was inclusive and that it was fair.

Most of all, it’s not about what he does – it’s about the consequences and how you will react in response to him overstepping his boundaries. I have been in horrible relationships in my life. I have accepted lying, cheating, drinking, abuse – you name it. I had very few boundaries and the ones I did have kept getting pushed away as things got worse. The reason my ‘boundaries’ didn’t work was because I hadn’t determined the consequences if they weren’t adhered to. You need to state very clearly how you will react if boundaries are violated. And you have to follow through with any consequence you set – if you don’t follow through then you’ll be telling your partner that your wishes don’t need to be respected. A boundary without a consequence is just a hope.

None of this is easy but I am lucky enough to have an exceptional therapist who guides me through this process. Also, my husband is committed to getting & staying sober and is supportive of implementing these tools. I am so grateful for that.